Less than two weeks after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, President Donald Trump arrived on the island on October 3, 2017, for a visit that produced one of the most memorable images of his first term: the president tossing rolls of paper towels into a crowd of hurricane survivors.

The moment was brief, but it quickly became a symbol for critics who believed Trump's response to the catastrophe lacked empathy for the scale of suffering on the island.

And the paper towels were only part of what made the visit controversial.

Puerto Rico Had Been Devastated

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, inflicting catastrophic damage across the island.

The electrical grid collapsed. Communications networks were severely damaged. Roads became impassable. Communities were isolated, hospitals struggled to operate, and residents faced shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicine.

When Trump arrived on October 3, much of Puerto Rico remained without electricity and the enormous recovery effort was still in its early stages.

Trump traveled with First Lady Melania Trump and members of his administration, meeting with Puerto Rican officials, emergency personnel and residents.

During a briefing at Muñiz Air National Guard Base, Trump repeatedly praised the federal government's response.

He also brought up how much the disaster was costing Washington.

With Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney in the room, Trump told Puerto Rican officials:

“Puerto Rico, but you've thrown our budget a little out of whack because we've spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico.”

He added that spending the money was “fine” because lives had been saved.

Comparing Maria to Katrina

Trump then compared Hurricane Maria with Hurricane Katrina.

He referred to Katrina as “a real catastrophe” and asked Puerto Rican officials for the island's current death count.

When told that 16 deaths had been certified at that point, Trump contrasted that figure with the much larger death toll from Katrina and told officials they could be proud of what had taken place.

The comparison would age badly.

The number available during Trump's visit represented only the deaths officially confirmed at that early point in the disaster. Puerto Rico later revised Hurricane Maria's official death toll to 2,975 after researchers examined excess mortality following the storm.

That made Maria one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern American history.

Then Came the Paper Towels

Later that day, Trump and the first lady visited Calvary Chapel in Guaynabo, where relief supplies were being distributed.

Television cameras captured Trump standing behind a table filled with supplies.

He began handing items to people.

Then he picked up rolls of paper towels.

Instead of simply handing them across the table, Trump began tossing them into the crowd.

One after another, rolls of paper towels sailed through the air toward residents gathered inside the church.

The video spread rapidly.

To Trump's critics, the scene looked less like a presidential visit to Americans recovering from a catastrophic hurricane and more like someone throwing souvenirs into an audience.

Trump later defended the episode, saying the crowd had been enthusiastic and that he was having fun with the people gathered there.

But the image was already fixed in the public consciousness.

A Visit That Became a Symbol

Trump consistently argued that his administration's response to Hurricane Maria was successful.

Federal agencies did mount a massive relief operation, involving FEMA, the military and thousands of federal personnel. The administration also pointed to enormous quantities of food, water and other supplies delivered to Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rican officials and residents, however, also described severe logistical problems, prolonged power outages and communities waiting for assistance.

The political fight over the federal response would continue long after Trump left the island.

But photographs and video from October 3 gave that debate an enduring visual shorthand.

Donald Trump, president of the United States, standing in a hurricane relief center and tossing paper towels to Puerto Ricans whose island had just been devastated.

For supporters, it was an innocuous moment taken out of context during a day devoted to disaster relief.

For critics, it encapsulated what they saw as the administration's detached response to Puerto Rico's suffering.

Either way, it became one of the defining images of the federal response to Hurricane Maria.

And it happened on this day — October 3, 2017.